The multi-queue block layer (blk-mq) has indeed made it for Linux 3.13 as one (of many other) exciting features. The multi-queue block layer can lead to better SSD performance through reducing latency by balancing I/O workload across multiple CPU cores and allowing for multiple hardware queues.

For those in need of a high-performance specially-optimized file-system for flash storage devices, the F2FS file-system developed at Samsung has seen more "major enhancements" queued up for the Linux 3.13 kernel.

The merge window hasn't even officially opened yet on the Linux 3.13 kernel but it's already super exciting and I can't wait for the new code to start hitting mainline and to benchmark these massive changes to the Linux kernel. Here's just a few things to expect so far but it's already gearing up to be a super exciting release and perhaps the best of 2013.

The Linux 3.13 kernel merge window has become even more exciting even though it's not even officially open yet. Besides many to-be-merged changes talked about on Phoronix already, the ACPI and power management pull is particularly exciting for ARM and Intel Linux users.

SystemTap 2.4 has been released today for effective information gathering and software diagnostics on Linux systems. SystemTap 2.4 provides smarter error reporting, support for virtual machine probing using libvirt, and other new functionality.

While the Linux 3.13 merge window isn't opening until next week, the maintainer of the block layer to the Linux kernel isn't accepting anymore changes for this next kernel release. The merge pull for the block layer in Linux 3.13 is already quite large, in part due to merging the multi-queue block layer (blk-mq) support for faster disk performance. The multi-queue block layer will allow Linux to perform significantly better for disk IOPS while reducing latency with multi-queue SSD access on multi-core systems.

As was anticipated, the Linux 3.12 kernel was released this afternoon. The Linux 3.12 kernel is a mighty big update but beyond announcing its debut, Linus Torvalds also made mention of a delay in the Linux 3.13 merge window and has begun expressing possible plans for a Linux 4.0 release in about one year's time.

With the Linux 3.12 kernel likely being officially released this evening if there are no last-minute delays, here is a look again at some of the top features and changes for this major open-source Linux upgrade.

KTAP is a lightweight script-based dynamic tracing tool for Linux that remains independent of GCC and doesn't require kernel module re-compilation. KTAP 0.3 was just announced this morning and with it comes some more features.

While the Linux 3.12 kernel hasn't even been released yet, going back to late August Intel has been plotting their graphics improvements for Linux 3.13. In September Intel was already sending in drm-next changes and they have done more rounds since. Another drm-next pull request was issued today for the Intel DRM driver.

Rob Clark has queued up some interesting changes to his "MSM" DRM driver for reverse-engineered open-source Qualcomm Snapdragon display support. The changes queued up for the Linux 3.13 kernel will include PRIME and render nodes capabilities.

Linus Torvalds released the Linux 3.12-rc6 kernel a day early due to flying out tonight for the Linux Kernel Summit happening next week in Edinburgh. Overall, things are quieting down for the Linux 3.12 kernel with the end being near.

NFTables is a new firewall subsystem / packet filtering engine for the Linux kernel that is poised to replace iptables. NFTables has been in development for several years by the upstream author of Netfilter. This new nftables system is set to be merged now into the Linux 3.13 kernel.

Going back years there's been work to build the Linux kernel with LLVM's Clang compiler rather than GCC. It's taken a lot of work by many individuals and organizations, but it's becoming an easier task to accomplish for multiple architectures. Here's where the Clang'ed Linux kernel is at today.

Continuing in Linus Torvalds' usual Sunday tradition, the next release candidate of the Linux kernel is now available. With today's 3.12-rc5 kernel release, the rate of change for the Linux 3.12 kernel is lessening.

For months now there's been an Armada DRM/KMS graphics driver for Marvell Armada ARM SoCs. Having gone through several patch revisions, it appears that all major issues have now been addressed for this nearly 5,000 line open-source driver.

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